(...continuing using perverted smiths lyrics in subject lines since 04/2000) hello, strange friends, and friendly strangers. i wish i could one day send a happy mail to sinister. sadly, i think this might be one of the last ones, happy or otherwise. i'll soon have to prefix my favorite word, sinister, with an unthinkable and unwelcome verb. unsubscribe. unsubscribe sinister. sending that mail won't be easy. you see, i'm hooked. on sinister. the b&s-dreams. the witty subject lines. the imaginative e-mail addresses... all the lovely, lovely people... i'm so depressed. finland, my "glorious" country, has dropkicked me in the teeth for the last time. finland, one of the last western europe countries to succesfully avoid true democracy, has requested, nay, insisted that i should do my military service now. or rather, the twee, gun-hating, violence avoiding, bloody pacifist scum, alternative to military service. yes, lucky me, 12 months of free slave labor in some goverment sponsored place await me. conscription might not mean anything much to some of you, so let me explain. most finnish people live in a collective state of paranoia of being attacked by "an unknown threat from east". as anyone with a bit of sense know this is clearly bollocks. anyway, as we "heroically" beat the soviets off about 55 years ago, (by allying with the nazis, no less) military service and the finnish army are respected, no, revered by the average finnish person, and anyone taking the sensible pacifist alternative of civil service is, well, if not shunned by people, then at least widely disrespected. here pacifism is not even nearly as valued as patriotism... anyway, i'll be off in a month or two to "do" "my service" to my "beloved" country. bah. and the absolutely worst thing is that my parents have a huge problem with me not doing "the honorable" thing (ie. me not going to the army). my own parents! clearly i was not only born to the wrong family, but to the wrong country, maybe even the wrong planet... my only chance to avoid the dreaded civil service is to find a study place in some foreign country. bet that will be easy to do in a month or so... so that's why i'm depressed. any offers of sympathy will be gratefully accepted. - whine over - oh, and a big massive shout out to the great robert "robert smith" smith of this very list, who is an absolute star of man, even if he has a somewhat unfortunate name... so i was in london earlier. it was grate. i met some sinister people, and they were grate too. thanks, everyone. have to dash off now. keep it real, he said with a scandinavian accent. - j a n n e - p.s. this little gem of a song came up today, when i was tiredly clicking the fantastic "belle and sebastian song generator". enjoy. Cat in corduroys Cat in corduroys Loves choirboys But Laura turns away Wishing you were round the way Well, wouldn't anyone? You're hiding in a cardigan You're hiding in a girl Mary Jo explains But Mary Jo's a fool Mary Jo explains: The cloud is as calm as string And the sun is lonely The sun is lonely Lonely, lonely, lonely... cat in corduroys? you're hiding in a girl? what can it all mean? +----------------------------------------------------------------------+ +---+ Brought to you by the undead Sinister mailing list +---+ To send to the list mail sinister@missprint.org. To unsubscribe send "unsubscribe sinister" or "unsubscribe sinister-digest" to majordomo@missprint.org. WWW: http://www.missprint.org/sinister +-+ "legion of bedroom saddo devotees" "tech-heads and students" +-+ +-+ "the cardie wearing biscuit nibbling belle & sebastian list" +-+ +-+ "sinsietr is a bit freaky" - stuart david, looper +-+ +-+ "pasty-faced vegan geeks... and we LOST!" - NME April 2000 +-+ +-+ "peculiarly deranged fanbase" "frighteningly named +-+ +-+ Sinister List organisation" - NME May 2000 +-+ +----------------------------------------------------------------------+